Welcome to Flashback Friday: The Marvel Cinematic Universe. In this series you’ll get a review and discussion on some of your favorite Pops and Dorbz from the MCU. Here, we really appreciate the shared universe so the figures will come from film, television, and streaming. Thor from the Avengers set is this week’s choice for discussion.
Discussion: Thor’s introduction to the MCU took place in 2011 in the self-titled film Thor. It wasn’t until Thor teamed up with the Avengers that we found out just how fun he could be. His interactions with the team were very funny and he played an integral role to help defeat Loki. The film was a massive success at the worldwide box office grossing over $1.5 billion dollars and is to this day the highest grossing MCU film. The success of the Avengers and the MCU has been nothing short of phenomenal and is showing no signs of slowing down.
The Avengers Pop set was only the second set after an MCU film, Thor being the first. There were no sets for Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Incredible Hulk, and Captain America: The First Avenger. Funko released the Avengers set in 2012 which is the same year the film debuted in theaters worldwide. The set features a good chuck of the Avengers but sadly does not give a proper Avengers team. Subsequent sets have remedied that problem but it still lingers that we didn’t get a Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Agent Maria Hill Pop. It would be pretty cool if Funko decided to retroactively add those missing characters to the set just like the 2017 ECCC Captain America was given a First Avenger box. I hope this trend continues in the future for the other missing MCU sets.
Pops from the Avengers set as you can imagine are fairly pricey given that the set was released five years ago, it’s based off of a mega blockbuster, and the characters are extremely popular. Perhaps a little surprising is that Thor is one of the cheaper Pops in within the set. Thor hasn’t been valued above $50.00 in a while and you can expect to pay $25.00 – $35.00. Finding this Pop will be an online only search unless you’re able to pick him up at conventions for a likely increased cost. Amazon, eBay, and our Facebook group which can be found here are you best options for adding Thor to your collection.
Avengers Set: Thor is numbered 12 within the Marvel Pop series. The set features Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Nick Fury, Thor, and Loki. The set does not contain any variants of the characters and no exclusives other than Loki is limited to San Diego Comic Con which remains to this day the most expensive MCU Pop. During the time of release these Pops could be found wherever they were sold in 2012. The set only contained six Pops which was a lot for the time but nowadays would be very disappointing. I previously mentioned Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Agent Maria Hill should’ve been included in the set. If Funko wanted to get really bold they could have released Pops for Bruce Banner, Steve Rodgers, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton. Perhaps we’ll get to see that in the future.
Description/Review: Thor begins with shoulder length blonde hair and a full on beard with the same color. He’s wearing a blue and gray suit that has some black lines to give it more definition. There are silver armor shoulder pads that surround the neck and lower around the upper chest area. A piece of armor stretches downward from the center of the neck to his belt. The sleeves on the arms are silver and resemble armor. The pants are the same color as the top portion of the suit while his boots are black. Thor is holding his trusty hammer in his right hand readying it for battle. Overall, I think this Pop looks the most like their Avengers character from the film except Nick Fury. The likeness is definitely there. Check out the images below for a comparison.
What’s next? Thor can next be seen in the highly anticipated Thor: Ragnarok which debuts this November. The events in this film are rumored to lead directly into Avengers: Infinity War. Thor’s status following these films is up in the air but you can be sure to get your fill of Funko Thor Pop Vinyl’s based off of these next two films. Look for tons of variations especially in Ragnarok.
What do you think of Thor? Sound off in the comments section below.
Would you like to see a specific Pop or Dorbz in a future article? Post your choices in the comments section and you just might see your favorite character “Pop” up in the coming weeks.
Check back next week for another MCU flashback. Excelsior!
Matt Norris